- Location: AMC Flatiron Crossing 14
- Up until about halfway through its runtime, Captain America: The First Avenger was on pace to become the best Marvel superhero movie. More divine than Thor, more amazing and/or spectacular than any of the Spider-Man films, and - yes - even stronger than Iron Man. Face front, true believers, I thought this was going to be the one. But then something happened. Suddenly, the film switched from being about what makes a real hero to being about a guy who punches people and tosses his shield. What a shame.
- But before I get to the film's jarring transformation, let's talk about Cap's metamorphosis from a stereotypical 97-pound weakling named Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) to a musclebound superhero. Despite all the noise I've made about not liking origin stories, this one was terrific! I have no idea how the filmmakers used CGI to hide Evans' considerable beefcake, but somehow it worked. Even more impressive than the CGI, however, is Evans' performance as an initially puny patriot who just doesn't know how to give up. Sometimes that means taking a beating outside of a Brooklyn movie theater. Often, it means marching into yet another recruiting office hoping that someone will give him a chance. Eventually, it means signing up for an experimental military procedure developed by the uber-sincere Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci).
- At this point, however, it would remiss of me not to mention the results of the first test of Dr. Erskine's super-soldier serum. Some time ago, an ambitious underling of Hitler's known as Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) impetuously tested the serum on himself, presumably with the assistance of a just-following-orders scientific type named Zola (Toby Jones). As the good doctor explains, the formula "amplifies the inner qualities of its taker...Good becomes great, bad becomes worse." From this, we gather that Schmidt must have started out pretty awful, because he's turned into an absolutely diabolical villain whose interests in the occult drive him to pursue a "great whatsit" known as the Cosmic Cube. Of course, anyone who has read the comics or seen the film's absurdly revealing trailer knows Schmidt's big secret, but the film has a lot of fun keeping his cadaverous countenance out of the spotlight until just the right moment.
- So, how can the newly transformed Captain America battle such evil? Here, the film is surprisingly creative by suggesting that, initially, nobody really knows what to do with him. Although Rogers is eager to go to war, the gruff, Patton-quoting Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) remains disappointed that he only got one man out of this experiment. Meanwhile, a pragmatic senator (Michael Brandon) is all-too-eager to sell Cap as a brand name to push war bonds and entertain the troops by punching out a Hitler impersonator (in one of the film's great in-jokes). Finally, the lovely-but-tough Officer Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) and the ever-daring inventor Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) assist Cap in sneaking behind enemy lines to rescue his childhood friend, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Perhaps needless to say, this mission allows Rogers to prove what a difference one man can make.
- Unfortunately, that particular event also marks the film's final thrust of creativity. Once Schmidt's mask is off, the rest of the film is a paint-by-numbers exercise in big-budget superhero fare with a dash of Indiana Jones mixed in. Sure, there's an entertaining enough team of commandos (Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, Kenneth Choi, J.J. Feild, and Bruno Ricci) and one intentionally ambiguous death scene, but it all feels pretty flavorless compared to the film's brilliant start. Fortunately, Evans, Jones, and Weaving, the latter of whom is obviously having fun channeling Werner Herzog, remain just entertaining enough that the whole production doesn't completely tank. We'll see what happens when they defrost Cap for the sequel.
- I had somehow forgotten that Red Skull's real name is Johann Schmidt. That's like John Smith over there.
- As usual, Samuel L. Jackson appeared briefly, although they at least had the courtesy to save him until the end.
